Case Studies

Communication Matters

The Secret to Consistently Excellent Content Is…

6/2/2017

The Secret to Consistently Excellent Content Is…

If there’s one thing financial firms can do to reliably improve their communications, it’s this: improve your process. We’ve seen time and again that clear process leads to great financial content, and we’ve seen investment companies that lack it struggle.

A well-managed process needs to:

Define tasks – people work better when they know exactly what to do and where to go for help.

Measure outcomes – recording results will uncover where time and money are best spent and show paths for improvement over time.

Let’s say you’ve taken on new business and reporting requirements have increased. Can you handle it with your existing team, or do you need new staff? New technology? What about outsourcing? A documented process that shows where effort goes can identify exactly what adjustments you need to make. It can also help you decide which tasks are essential and which can be reassigned or eliminated.

Solid process management provides definition, transparency, and feedback. It gives you consistent messaging and improves morale by getting rid of confusion and blame.

Over time, we’ve developed a series of simple, inexpensive tools that both evaluate our client’s processes and lead to meaningful improvements in time or cost, without the drama of a company reorg or a major change initiative. We captured some of our analysis in a 2016 research paper called The (Remarkable!) Hidden Cost of Process. But trust us when we say – good content simply isn’t possible without a good process to support it.

If you want to try some of the tools we’ve developed to help evaluate and improve your communications process, give us a call.